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| Charleston church massacre: 'What happened in there was brutal' | Charleston church massacre: 'What happened in there was brutal' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Dylann Storm Roof walked up the 23 slate grey steps that led to the main entrance of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church and asked for the pastor. It was Wednesday, and that meant Bible study night. | |
| Security cameras captured the slender 21-year-old dressed in dark trousers and a grey sweatshirt, with his hair cut into a distinctive bowl, entering the church by the main door. There was no sign in the video footage of the gun that he carried, carefully hidden. His father had given him a .45-calibre handgun in April as a 21st birthday present. | Security cameras captured the slender 21-year-old dressed in dark trousers and a grey sweatshirt, with his hair cut into a distinctive bowl, entering the church by the main door. There was no sign in the video footage of the gun that he carried, carefully hidden. His father had given him a .45-calibre handgun in April as a 21st birthday present. |
| Related: What happened at the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting? | Related: What happened at the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting? |
| No one, it seemed, thought to turn the young man away. The church in downtown Charleston had a history of opening its doors to strangers that stretched back decades. | No one, it seemed, thought to turn the young man away. The church in downtown Charleston had a history of opening its doors to strangers that stretched back decades. |
| Inside, a dozen regular members of the church were gathered around a table in a basement meeting room. It was the time of the week when congregants came to gain “a closer relationship with God”, as the church describes the sessions. “Is something missing from your life?” the church website says. “Are you doing all you can to have a closer relationship with God? If you have a desire to learn more about God, then join us.” | |
| On Wednesday at about 8pm Roof answered that call. Having asked for the pastor, he sat down right next to him. | On Wednesday at about 8pm Roof answered that call. Having asked for the pastor, he sat down right next to him. |
| Before the shooting began, Roof’s youngest victim, 26-year-old student Tywanza Sanders, a 2014 graduate of Allen University, released a Snapchat video to a friend. It provided a glimpse of the gathering in the moments before the carnage. | |
| Related: Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof 'wanted to ignite civil war' | Related: Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof 'wanted to ignite civil war' |
| The video, obtained by CNN and Mashable, is grainy and shaky, showing only the briefest glimpse of the scene. The bible group is seen sitting around the table in a large, wood-panelled room. Books and papers were on the table, and the participants were sitting on folding chairs. | |
| One still image from the video shows Clementa Pinckney, who also held a position as a South Carolina state senator, in a green shirt, gesturing to the others and possibly smiling. At least three other unidentified black people are in the frame. At the far side of the table was Roof, partially obscured by his soon-to-be victims. | One still image from the video shows Clementa Pinckney, who also held a position as a South Carolina state senator, in a green shirt, gesturing to the others and possibly smiling. At least three other unidentified black people are in the frame. At the far side of the table was Roof, partially obscured by his soon-to-be victims. |
| If Sanders was the youngest of those victims, the oldest was his great-aunt Susie Jackson. At 87, she had been coming to the Emanuel her entire life. As her son, Walter, told the Guardian, she rarely missed a Sunday service, was an integral part of the church’s gospel choir, and was also a dab hand at cooking for the congregation. | |
| Not long ago, she won first prize in the annual church fair for her hot devilled crab cakes. She greatly enjoyed the prize, her son said, two days at the Charleston Hyatt. | |
| The church, and her family, were the centre of Susie Jackson’s world. “This is just senseless,” he said of his mother’s death, just hours after the shooting, having travelled from his home in Cleveland to rejoin his grieving family. | |
| “To kill innocent people like that. It’s hard on all of us. My mother was always there for us – she was always the one people would turn to when they had a problem.” | “To kill innocent people like that. It’s hard on all of us. My mother was always there for us – she was always the one people would turn to when they had a problem.” |
| Related: The Charleston shooting victims: a poet, a politician, a librarian, women of faith | Related: The Charleston shooting victims: a poet, a politician, a librarian, women of faith |
| Other congregants at the table were Dr Daniel L Simmons Sr, 74, and Ethel Lance, 70, a reverend and a custodian respectively of the Emanuel church, and Myra Thompson, 59, the wife of a vicar at another local church. | |
| “These weren’t just ordinary people,” said William Hamilton, a local attorney who knew several victims. “They were major community names who had done things for us here for years.” | “These weren’t just ordinary people,” said William Hamilton, a local attorney who knew several victims. “They were major community names who had done things for us here for years.” |
| DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, worked in Charleston county as director of the federal community development block grants; Cynthia Hurd, 54, was the regional manager of the St Andrew’s library, and Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a speech therapist at a high school north of the city. | DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, worked in Charleston county as director of the federal community development block grants; Cynthia Hurd, 54, was the regional manager of the St Andrew’s library, and Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a speech therapist at a high school north of the city. |
| So far only Sanders’ seconds-long Snapchat, supplemented by an equally sketchy indirect account given by one of the three survivors, have been able to provide clues to what happened inside that room. What is known is that Roof sat quietly among the worshippers for about an hour as they studied the Bible. | |
| Both local police and the FBI have declined to provide details about what happened next. | Both local police and the FBI have declined to provide details about what happened next. |
| However Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney, relayed a harrowing account she said was provided to her by a female survivor. | |
| Johnson told NBC that Roof sat next to Pinckney throughout the class, but then made his move as the meeting was coming to an end. “At the conclusion of the Bible study, from what I understand, they just start hearing loud noises ringing out. The suspect had already wounded a couple of individuals, including my cousin.” | Johnson told NBC that Roof sat next to Pinckney throughout the class, but then made his move as the meeting was coming to an end. “At the conclusion of the Bible study, from what I understand, they just start hearing loud noises ringing out. The suspect had already wounded a couple of individuals, including my cousin.” |
| Johnson said the survivor told her that Roof reloaded his weapon five times and engaged in conversation with his victims as they pleaded with him to stop. | Johnson said the survivor told her that Roof reloaded his weapon five times and engaged in conversation with his victims as they pleaded with him to stop. |
| The survivor’s son, who was also at the meeting, “was trying to talk him out of doing that act of killing people”, Johnson said. She added that Roof replied: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” | The survivor’s son, who was also at the meeting, “was trying to talk him out of doing that act of killing people”, Johnson said. She added that Roof replied: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” |
| It was not until hours later that news of the shooting began to spread around Charleston – and across the country. Roof fled the scene in a black sedan with Confederate flag licence plates, and was arrested, the following day, more than 200 miles away, across the North Carolina border. | |
| By the early hours of Thursday morning, distraught relatives of the victims had gathered at the nearby Embassy Suites hotel. | By the early hours of Thursday morning, distraught relatives of the victims had gathered at the nearby Embassy Suites hotel. |
| “Raw emotion was out,” said Tamika Myers, 40, who works at Blind Justice, a local group that assists grieving relatives of shooting victims. “People were crying. Some were passing out.” | |
| The identities of only three victims were relayed to families that night, Myers said. By 5am the coroner, Rae H Wooten, had to explain why identification was proving so difficult. “What happened in there was brutal,” Myers said. “It was gruesome.” | |